Jeff Hage is the editor of The Princeton Union-Eagle and Mille Lacs County Times. He is originally from Burnsville, Minn. and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in Journalism.
Jeff’s first newspaper job out of college was as a reporter and associate editor of The Mille Lacs County Times in Milaca. He went on to work for the Glenwood City Tribune in Glenwood City, Wis., and as the editor of The Madisonian in Winterset, Iowa, managing editor of 17-paper Press Citizen newspapers in Des Moines, Ia., and reporter for the daily Chippewa Herald in Chippewa Falls, Wis. before being hired as the managing editor of The Daily Journal in Fergus Falls, Minn. Jeff is married to Kathy. They have three sons: Christopher, Jason and Joshua and a grandson, Oliver.

Could Tigers return to Mississippi 8?

Could the Princeton Tigers be returning to the Mississippi 8 Conference?

Cambridge-Isanti Athletic Director Mark Solberg sure hopes so.

“They are very desirable,” Solberg said of the Tigers’ athletic programs.

Princeton Superintendent Rick Lahn expects to receive from Mississippi 8 superintendents this week a formal invitation to rejoin the conference. Princeton just left the M8 and joined the upstart Granite Ridge Conference for the 2011-12 school year.

“Have we started the discussion? Yes,” Lahn said. “Have we made a decision? No.”

Chisago Lakes, North Branch and St. Francis are also expected to receive invitations, Solberg said. They will be invited to join a two-division conference beginning with the 2013-14 school year, he said.

One alignment being tossed around, according to Solberg, is Chisago Lakes, North Branch, Princeton, St. Francis and Cambridge-Isanti in an eastern division. The big schools of Big Lake, Buffalo, Monticello, Rogers and St. Michael-Albertville would be in the west.

It’s a division alignment similar to one Princeton sought prior to leaving the Mississippi 8 for the Granite Ridge Conference, which began play this school year. It’s also an alignment that would have kept Princeton from leaving the Mississippi 8, Lahn said.

Princeton received a call from M8 officials six to eight weeks ago asking if the school district would be interested in joining a district with two divisions consisting of five large schools and five small schools, Lahn said.

Princeton said it would be willing to listen to proposals. Since then, Activities Director Darin Laabs has attended an informational meeting with M8 officials and Lahn has had one phone conversation regarding the subject, he said.

“I suspect we’ll get an invite and then we’ll explore all options and do what’s best for the school district,” Lahn said.

The two-conference format is one Laabs proposed prior to Princeton leaving the M8 for the Granite Ridge.

But a two-division proposal wasn’t right for the Mississippi 8 in 2008 and a change wasn’t made.

Princeton had good relationships with the M8 schools, but night in and night out the Tigers were coming out on the bottom from a competitive standpoint, Laabs said. Zimmerman found itself in the same situation.